Eight days ago, the kids and I headed down to Enchantment in the Park, specifically to see the living nativity put on by our area churches.  And it was wonderful.  The costumes were great, a soundtrack played Christmas music and parts of Luke 2.  The scenery was wonderful.  And all the actors did a great job. But there was one little hiccup.  An angel choir announced to the shepherds that Jesus was born and they should go see him.  The actors then walked to the stable and praised Jesus. And what does Luke say they did after that?  They told everyone what they had seen and heard.  To illustrate this, the shepherds walked through the crowd announcing that the Savior was born.  But the first shepherd, the first young man to speak, opened his mouth and said this: “Christ is risen!”  He quickly realized his mistake and got in line with everyone else. “The Savior is born! The Messiah is here!”  But everyone heard him.  The kids covered their mouths.  “Oh, he messed up!”  It was the talk of the town for about 10 minutes.  I even heard one guy say, “He got the order all wrong.  You can’t have a resurrection without a birth.”

I agreed at the time, but the more I think about it, I absolutely love what that one shepherd said.  “Christ is risen!  Christ is born!” You need both.  You can’t have Easter without Christmas, true, but you can’t have a real Christmas without Easter.  Sure, they may look different on the outside.  Tonight is quiet and subdued.  It is dark and cold.  We will light our candles and sing Silent Night.  Easter is loud, loud joy. Choirs shout. Sunlight is everywhere. Lilies cover every inch of the altar. But Christmas and Easter are equally important parts of one great truth, a truth we ponder tonight: in Christ, we have the total package.

Ever walked into a movie that already began? Once I arrived at one about a virus overtaking the planet 10 minutes late. I enjoyed the movie, but I missed the part about how the virus spread and where it had come from. What I saw was fine, but I left the theater kicking myself for being late and having that sense of incompleteness because I didn’t know the whole story.

On Christmas Eve, it’s easy to see only one side of the story, a side we know very well.  As we heard in Luke 2, Jesus, as promised, was born the of the virgin Mary in a cattle barn. There he was wrapped in rags and laid in a feeding trough. There the shepherds, who had been told of this birth by angels, worshipped him. It was in Bethlehem all this took place. Now, think of all the sermons you have heard on/about Christmas over the years. Have you ever heard one that doesn’t focus on peace and comfort, that is not soothing/calming? I guess not. I’ve preached many Christmas sermons that have had that same focus.

These are enjoyable and pleasing to the ear. We crave that, right? I’ve been begging Lori for years to stop watching the news. After having a good day, I don’t want to hear what they report – this financial crisis, that escaped criminal, this terror hotspot, and recall news. When we come to God’s house, and more so on Christmas, we want to put that behind us, to imagine there’s an invisible line around church that makes it impossible for the worries/cares we face daily out there to follow us in here. We call this sanctuary. We seek relief here, a separation from the problems we face on the outside.

What could bring more peace than a baby, a child?  If you’ve not been at a nursing home when a kid is present, it is hard to put into words what you see. People who used to see kids every day now see them rarely. We used to carol to shut ins when Av and Coop.  They were like 6 & 4, and they were almost scared, because those shut ins long for the joy and simple peace a child experiences. They crave seeing a child’s eyes light up over the smallest piece of candy.  It is as if all their aches and pains fade away for a few moments.  They are locked in on the child.

As we gather here, we focus on a baby, THE baby.  So, I could’ve gone online and found cute anecdotes and tear jerking stories about the innocence of a child.  We could sing the most peaceful songs the human ear has ever heard and the human mind ever developed. We could lock in on the Christ child and nothing else.  And remembering that this child is the Savior, the one promised to remove all sin from all people for all time, there would be a great amount of peace in that.

But that’s only ½ the story. Lop of the last chapters of the Gospels. Make their last words: Jesus died and was buried.  The stone was placed, sealed and guards stood watch. Now go back to the baby in the manger. Does that take away from your peace?  Does that make you feel like missed something? At a movie, a pregnant Lori got motion sick and we left. I still have no idea how it ended. Plot lines were developing, but we had to go before I found out where the movie was headed.

If we look only at Christmas, at Jesus the child, we are left in the dark.  The movie seems to be that a child was born who was supposed to do many great things and one amazing thing, but he failed.  In the end, while he was a good example and a fine teacher, his life is not different or any more meaningful than anyone else’s.  He was born, lived and died.

If that’s true, we have every reason to lack peace this Christmas. Simply focusing only on the birth does not address our situation now. Now we daily struggle to do what God wants in our families, jobs and lives. Now we deal with temptation, the urge to sin before and the guilty conscience after that wonders how we could’ve done such a thing. Now we’re filled with fear as we see the world. Now we doubt, worry, fear. We wish we could draw that invisible circle, inside which no worries or stress is allowed. But we can’t escape reality. Something is wrong. We’re wrong. Everything’s wrong. Someone needs to make it right, to do something about this, to bring peace, calm and comfort. Only standing at the manger does not do this.

But finish the story. That child about whom all the promises were made, grew. He eventually went throughout the area preaching the truth, healing and doing miracles to verify he was who he said he was.  And yes, he died. But the Gospels don’t end at that. They go on. And these final chapters can be summarized with one verse: “He is not here. He is risen.”

Do you understand the depth, power and might of that phrase?  It completes the story. The Jesus born in Bethlehem is the same Jesus who died in Jerusalem and rose 3 days later. He who was called Jesus because he will save his people from their sins did just that as he took them all, yours and mine, upon himself and paid for them in full.  The one so many labeled the king of the Jews, be they wise men, Herod or years later Pilate, is now the living Lord who rules everything.  Yes, he died. He was born to do that.  But he was also born to rise, to complete his work of bringing us back to God and to repair the spiritual rift we’d created with God. That is what the Christ child did, the one whose birth we celebrate tonight did.

And when we see the whole picture, what could be more comforting?  As we go through all our struggles, the worst of them being the fear that God will not welcome us into heaven because we’ve failed him so often, we can rejoice in the Christ child, for we know he came to wash us clean from sin and present us to his Father without stain, wrinkle or blemish. For our many sins, we are forgiven. Our fears are put to rest. Our worry subsides. We can face anything for we know we are not alone. The Savior who was born, lived, died and rose for us is the Savior who’ll comfort us, bring us joy and grant us peace even in dark days.  For he is, as the hymn says, the sun of righteousness, the one who rose with healing in his wings.

To close, a simple biology lesson.  99+% of humans are blessed with 2 legs.  If my leg suddenly disappeared right now, I’d fall over. I’d not be able to stand. To take Christmas or Easter separately means the same thing.  There is no Easter w/o Christmas.  There is no Christmas w/o Easter. Thank God we have both. And thank God we have a Savior who loved and loves us so much he came as a child, died as a man, and rose as a king.  You know the whole story.  And the whole story means your home is heaven is secured, because by God’s grace, through faith, you are one with your Savior.  May God grant you a blessed Christmas and fill you with Easter joy, for the one of whom it was said, “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior; he is Christ the Lord” is also the one of whom it was said, “He is not here.  He is risen.”  Amen.

Eight days ago, the kids and I headed down to Enchantment in the Park, specifically to see the living nativity put on by our area churches.  And it was wonderful.  The costumes were great, a soundtrack played Christmas music and parts of Luke 2.  The scenery was wonderful.  And all the actors did a great job. But there was one little hiccup.  An angel choir announced to the shepherds that Jesus was born and they should go see him.  The actors then walked to the stable and praised Jesus. And what does Luke say they did after that?  They told everyone what they had seen and heard.  To illustrate this, the shepherds walked through the crowd announcing that the Savior was born.  But the first shepherd, the first young man to speak, opened his mouth and said this: “Christ is risen!”  He quickly realized his mistake and got in line with everyone else. “The Savior is born! The Messiah is here!”  But everyone heard him.  The kids covered their mouths.  “Oh, he messed up!”  It was the talk of the town for about 10 minutes.  I even heard one guy say, “He got the order all wrong.  You can’t have a resurrection without a birth.”

I agreed at the time, but the more I think about it, I absolutely love what that one shepherd said.  “Christ is risen!  Christ is born!” You need both.  You can’t have Easter without Christmas, true, but you can’t have a real Christmas without Easter.  Sure, they may look different on the outside.  Tonight is quiet and subdued.  It is dark and cold.  We will light our candles and sing Silent Night.  Easter is loud, loud joy. Choirs shout. Sunlight is everywhere. Lilies cover every inch of the altar. But Christmas and Easter are equally important parts of one great truth, a truth we ponder tonight: in Christ, we have the total package.

Ever walked into a movie that already began? Once I arrived at one about a virus overtaking the planet 10 minutes late. I enjoyed the movie, but I missed the part about how the virus spread and where it had come from. What I saw was fine, but I left the theater kicking myself for being late and having that sense of incompleteness because I didn’t know the whole story.

On Christmas Eve, it’s easy to see only one side of the story, a side we know very well.  As we heard in Luke 2, Jesus, as promised, was born the of the virgin Mary in a cattle barn. There he was wrapped in rags and laid in a feeding trough. There the shepherds, who had been told of this birth by angels, worshipped him. It was in Bethlehem all this took place. Now, think of all the sermons you have heard on/about Christmas over the years. Have you ever heard one that doesn’t focus on peace and comfort, that is not soothing/calming? I guess not. I’ve preached many Christmas sermons that have had that same focus.

These are enjoyable and pleasing to the ear. We crave that, right? I’ve been begging Lori for years to stop watching the news. After having a good day, I don’t want to hear what they report – this financial crisis, that escaped criminal, this terror hotspot, and recall news. When we come to God’s house, and more so on Christmas, we want to put that behind us, to imagine there’s an invisible line around church that makes it impossible for the worries/cares we face daily out there to follow us in here. We call this sanctuary. We seek relief here, a separation from the problems we face on the outside.

What could bring more peace than a baby, a child?  If you’ve not been at a nursing home when a kid is present, it is hard to put into words what you see. People who used to see kids every day now see them rarely. We used to carol to shut ins when Av and Coop.  They were like 6 & 4, and they were almost scared, because those shut ins long for the joy and simple peace a child experiences. They crave seeing a child’s eyes light up over the smallest piece of candy.  It is as if all their aches and pains fade away for a few moments.  They are locked in on the child.

As we gather here, we focus on a baby, THE baby.  So, I could’ve gone online and found cute anecdotes and tear jerking stories about the innocence of a child.  We could sing the most peaceful songs the human ear has ever heard and the human mind ever developed. We could lock in on the Christ child and nothing else.  And remembering that this child is the Savior, the one promised to remove all sin from all people for all time, there would be a great amount of peace in that.

But that’s only ½ the story. Lop of the last chapters of the Gospels. Make their last words: Jesus died and was buried.  The stone was placed, sealed and guards stood watch. Now go back to the baby in the manger. Does that take away from your peace?  Does that make you feel like missed something? At a movie, a pregnant Lori got motion sick and we left. I still have no idea how it ended. Plot lines were developing, but we had to go before I found out where the movie was headed.

If we look only at Christmas, at Jesus the child, we are left in the dark.  The movie seems to be that a child was born who was supposed to do many great things and one amazing thing, but he failed.  In the end, while he was a good example and a fine teacher, his life is not different or any more meaningful than anyone else’s.  He was born, lived and died.

If that’s true, we have every reason to lack peace this Christmas. Simply focusing only on the birth does not address our situation now. Now we daily struggle to do what God wants in our families, jobs and lives. Now we deal with temptation, the urge to sin before and the guilty conscience after that wonders how we could’ve done such a thing. Now we’re filled with fear as we see the world. Now we doubt, worry, fear. We wish we could draw that invisible circle, inside which no worries or stress is allowed. But we can’t escape reality. Something is wrong. We’re wrong. Everything’s wrong. Someone needs to make it right, to do something about this, to bring peace, calm and comfort. Only standing at the manger does not do this.

But finish the story. That child about whom all the promises were made, grew. He eventually went throughout the area preaching the truth, healing and doing miracles to verify he was who he said he was.  And yes, he died. But the Gospels don’t end at that. They go on. And these final chapters can be summarized with one verse: “He is not here. He is risen.”

Do you understand the depth, power and might of that phrase?  It completes the story. The Jesus born in Bethlehem is the same Jesus who died in Jerusalem and rose 3 days later. He who was called Jesus because he will save his people from their sins did just that as he took them all, yours and mine, upon himself and paid for them in full.  The one so many labeled the king of the Jews, be they wise men, Herod or years later Pilate, is now the living Lord who rules everything.  Yes, he died. He was born to do that.  But he was also born to rise, to complete his work of bringing us back to God and to repair the spiritual rift we’d created with God. That is what the Christ child did, the one whose birth we celebrate tonight did.

And when we see the whole picture, what could be more comforting?  As we go through all our struggles, the worst of them being the fear that God will not welcome us into heaven because we’ve failed him so often, we can rejoice in the Christ child, for we know he came to wash us clean from sin and present us to his Father without stain, wrinkle or blemish. For our many sins, we are forgiven. Our fears are put to rest. Our worry subsides. We can face anything for we know we are not alone. The Savior who was born, lived, died and rose for us is the Savior who’ll comfort us, bring us joy and grant us peace even in dark days.  For he is, as the hymn says, the sun of righteousness, the one who rose with healing in his wings.

To close, a simple biology lesson.  99+% of humans are blessed with 2 legs.  If my leg suddenly disappeared right now, I’d fall over. I’d not be able to stand. To take Christmas or Easter separately means the same thing.  There is no Easter w/o Christmas.  There is no Christmas w/o Easter. Thank God we have both. And thank God we have a Savior who loved and loves us so much he came as a child, died as a man, and rose as a king.  You know the whole story.  And the whole story means your home is heaven is secured, because by God’s grace, through faith, you are one with your Savior.  May God grant you a blessed Christmas and fill you with Easter joy, for the one of whom it was said, “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior; he is Christ the Lord” is also the one of whom it was said, “He is not here.  He is risen.”  Amen.